This design was my first attempt at an all Scotch stitch design. But, I almost didn’t finish this design because of the reversed heart pattern in the corners. It was a tricky pattern that I needed to chart out for each corner because the hearts remain upright. I couldn’t rotate the canvas.
For the rest of the outer border, I used Scotch and Smyrna stitches.
The center flower used a Watercolours, Baby Breath. The skein is from the stash of a deceased member. It has a hand written dye lot but no color number assigned. So, it’s quite an old skein. I love the colors and was particularly careful to have the threads color movement match on each side. And, it goes with peach and teal/turquoise very nicely including Crystal Braid CR17, Vineyard Silk Classic C-079 & C-184, Trebizond TRA701, and Splendor S818 (I’m not sure what Kreinik threads I used). I charted the center using offset scotch stitches over 3, 4, 6, and 7 threads before stitching.
I put the piece away quite some time ago and just recently found it. So, I decided that my own design wouldn’t beat me! And, it didn’t. It’ll make a nice companion piece in our recently repainted bedroom.
If I were to do this again, I wouldn’t be so particular about the color movement in the center flower. And, I would use a Mosaic stitch on the sides instead of all Smyrna stitches just for variety.
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Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
It’s beautiful and I love the colors. Was this done as a challenge to do something using scotch stitches?
Comment by brendasneedlepointstudioblog June 25, 2018 @ 5:33 amThanks so much. Yes, it was first attempt at that challenge. The second attempt is the one that is being published in Needle Pointers May issue which is running late. It got 3rd place at last year’s ANG seminar. I didn’t post that piece framed. But, it is fully described in my blog if you search ‘scotch’.
Comment by melitastitches4fun June 25, 2018 @ 7:00 am